How to Ensure Your Sales Reps Use Your CRM

When it comes to CRM – as with any other new technology – there’s going to be some backlash. People, for the most part, simply don’t like change. They have their system, they think it works, why should they bother changing it? This simple fact is the reason that more than 50% of CRM is implemented, but never used. That’s an awful lot of wasted time and money.

So what can you do to make sure that your sales reps actually use the exciting (and expensive) new CRM platform that you just invested in. Here’s a few simple suggestions that might help.

Get Everyone On the Same Page

Simply thrusting a new system onto your sales team will almost inevitably be met with a serious backlash. This is going to be a big change for most people, that affects every aspect of their day to day work routine. No one wants to have that dropped in their lap with little to no explanation.

So how can you avoid this?

Spend some time – all the time necessary – to ensure that every single person on your sales team gets the training and information they need to make the CRM work for them. CRM is an incredibly powerful tool that can often make the lives of salespeople easier, but only if they understand it.

Make sure that your employees get the proper information so that they can easily and effectively utilize your new CRM platform.

Make CRM Useful

This is along the same lines as making sure everyone knows how to work the CRM, they must also understand why the new CRM is useful, and how it will benefit them.

The benefits begin with having information at the right time and place. A good CRM platform will let your sales team be one step ahead of their customers, so they are always prepared for every phone call and every meeting.

However, all of this is dependent upon the team utilizing the system. CRM is a “you get out what you put in” type situation. Your sales team needs to be aware that the more information they put in, the more information they will receive to help them with their jobs. Demonstrate the value of CRM, and it will encourage your sales team to use it more effectively.

CRM Makes Cooperation Easier

Ask any sales team what applications they use the most and the answer will almost always be: email, calendars and some sort of document and presentation creation platform. Until now, all of these applications were individual and disconnected. However, they have recently become an integral part of modern CRM.

By making these apps collaborative and placing them at the center of the CRM structure, your employees can communicate and organize as a team like never before.

This is especially important since the advent of mobile. Now your sales team can access all of the information they need, upload their own information, and communicate with their coworkers all through a mobile device while on the go.

To avoid the common problem of underutilized CRM you must make your employees understand that it is their to make their lives easier. Then, you must show them how it makes their lives easier and communicate what their end of the deal is. If you can do all of this, you will almost always see a wide adoption of CRM across your business.